ECOLO-GROEN PROGRAM FOR THE 2018 COMMUNAL ELECTIONS - WATERMAEL-BOITSFORT - Ecolo-Groen Program 2018 - Watermael-Boitsfort

ECOLO-GROEN PROGRAM FOR THE
            2018 COMMUNAL ELECTIONS –
               WATERMAEL-BOITSFORT

Ecolo-Groen Program 2018 – Watermael-Boitsfort (http://www.ecolo-wb.be/)

Table of content

   1. An active citizen participation and a more efficient communication
       Citizen participation
       Information of the inhabitants
   2. A welcoming municipality for all
       Neighborhood life
       Social cohesion
       A hospitable and welcoming municipality
       A municipality accessible to all
   3. A quality living environment
       Green space and nature
       Public space
       A secure municipality
       Fight against environmental nuisances
       Public cleanliness
       Urbanism and town planning
   4. Mobility for all and everyone
       Pedestrians
       Bikes
       Public transportation
       Cars
   5. Watermael-Boitsfort in transition
       Promote the transition
       Food
       Consume differently
       Waste management
       Energy
   6. A voluntarist and supportive housing planning
       Housing for all
       Better use of the existing buildings
       A housing plan designed on the long term
   7. Circular economy and proximity
       Valuing actors
       Creating favorable conditions
       Innovating
   8. Preparing the citizens of tomorrow
       Early childhood
       Childhood
       Education
       Youth
   9. A place for seniors
   10. Culture and patrimony for all
       Culture
       Patrimony
   11. For a solidarity here and there
   12. Healthy and ethical municipal finances

Ecolo-Groen Program 2018 – Watermael-Boitsfort (http://www.ecolo-wb.be/)

Foreword
 A green mayor truly changes the way of doing politics!
 Ecologists have always been uncompromising about political practices. Under the
 impulse of Olivier Deleuze, the current municipal majority did not wait for political
 scandals from the past years before taking a series of actions that guarantee a more
 democratic and transparent governance and a more efficient management. Watermael
 Boitsfort is now cited as an example for these initiatives: more rights for the opposition,
 project of deliberations of the municipal council published on the website, municipal
 council chaired by a city council member (Conseiller Communal) and not anymore by
 the mayor, no more representation fees for the mayor and the aldermen (Echevins),
 public revenues of the city council members published on the municipality's website,
 etc.
 On top of that in Brussels neither the mayor nor the aldermen combine their municipal
 functions with a parliamentary mandate.

 Furthermore, the municipality debt has decreased by a 25% (from 23,2 to 17,6 millions
 of euros) without compromising the quality of services provided to the population. This
 good financial management will provide the means to invest in new projects for the
 years to come.

 Finally, Olivier Deleuze is proud of being the mayor of all people, french and dutch-
 speaking: his official speeches are bilingual, the municipal journal (Le 1170) ensures a
 linguistic balance between french and dutch and our mayor also attends the dutch-
 speaking cultural activities.

 Now that new foundations in terms of ethics, governance and management have been
 laid, Ecolo-Groen wishes to go further on the road to a greener and more open
 municipality, because Watermael-Boitsfort is facing new challenges. Together with you
 as we are making the choice to co-create a better tomorrow with all the strengths of our
 municipality!

 A program built with the inhabitants!
 In order to meet as well as possible the expectations and the preoccupations of the
 inhabitants, Ecolo-Groen has put citizen participation in action, to build its program
 based on your needs, your wishes and your ideas. Four public meetings were organized
 between January and March at the Watermael station. We are thankful to the people
 who contributed.

 These meetings were really useful in the creation of our program. They also gave us the
 opportunity to exchange with the inhabitants that fight for a greener, and more solidary
 municipality and world, today and for the future generations.

 The following pages will give you an idea of our program for the 6 years to come. This
 program caries the values that we care about: environmental protection, solidarity and
 ethics.

Ecolo-Groen Program 2018 – Watermael-Boitsfort (http://www.ecolo-wb.be/)

1. An active citizen participation and a more
   efficient communication
Since its creation, Ecolo has given a special importance in the way of doing politics, by allowing
all people to have the possibility to be involved in the life of the municipality. In this context,
the information and the citizen participation are two essential tools to guarantee a living
democracy.

The new majority led by Ecolo has put the participation in the center of its action these past 6
years. The municipality solicited and listened to residents' opinions during neighborhood
meetings and participatory processes related to housing and road development. But Ecolo-
Groen wishes to go further in the path of citizen participation.

OUR PROPOSALS:
1.1 Citizen participation
· To set up mechanism budget mechanism allocating part of the municipal budget to projects
   that come from inhabitants or neighborhoods committees, for example, to improve the
   living framework, the ecological transition, or the social cohesion.
· To create a right for citizen initiative, in order to allow citizens to submit a specific text
  at the municipal council vote.
· To study the possibility of organizing a moment before the municipal council to listen to
  the questions and suggestions of the inhabitants.
· To put at disposal a digital platform for the inhabitants, for them to share their citizen ideas
  and to debate, to consult local news, to answer to surveys, or even to report malfunctions
  in the municipality.
· To organize debate workshops (about cleanliness, spatial planning, mobility, etc.) to decide
  together what could be improved.

Ecolo-Groen Program 2018 – Watermael-Boitsfort (http://www.ecolo-wb.be/)

· To continue to organize information/participation evenings prior to any project that could
  impact on the neighborhood.
· To set up joint commissions composed of elected representatives and of citizens to create
  forums of dialogues about municipal issues.
· To organize information/participation evenings on long term topics and not only on existing
  projects.

1.2 Information of the inhabitants
· To broadcast the municipal council on the municipal website.
· Via the municipal website or any other means (regular mail, in situ boards), better inform
  the population about work in their neighborhood, evolution of the municipally projects and
  local initiatives.
· To modernize the municipality website and to make it interactive.
· To add a "mobility" section on the municipality website or create a digital platform to relay
  citizen and shared cars initiatives.
· To gather, on the website, everything that is put at disposal by the municipality and
  associations to decrease our environmental footprint.
· To work on administrative simplification to facilitate administrative procedures, to make
  them cheaper and easier to understand.
· To rationalize the use of paper for information related to municipality or municipality-
  linked activities.
· To open the municipality journal to associations.
· To open a market space for associations in order to present their activities from time to
  time.
· To provide tools to learn how the municipality (and CPAS) work and understand the
  decision processes.
· To publicize the procedures for allocating grants from the municipality to non-profit
  organizations and associations.

Ecolo-Groen Program 2018 – Watermael-Boitsfort (http://www.ecolo-wb.be/)

2. A welcoming municipality for all
Watermael-Boitsfort benefits from a special atmosphere and a "village" spirit that is very dear
to us. Ecolo-Groen wishes to reinforce the ‘Maisons de quartier’, the youth and the cultural
centers. We would also like to develop meeting and sharing areas: community buildings,
gardens and neighborhood orchards, playgrounds and sports fields.

Our municipality's population evolves and is more and more diversified. Social cohesion is
therefore a major challenge to guarantee a “live together”. This chapter includes a series of
tangible proposals to achieve this goal and to encourage the inhabitants to get involved in
their neighborhood. It also includes several proposals from the motion “Commune
hospitalière”, voted unanimously by the 2018 February municipal council at the initiative of
the citizens.

OUR PROPOSALS:
2.1 Neighborhood life
· To encourage, facilitate, and support the citizen’s initiatives that re-enchant the art of living
   together (outdoor cinema, artists’ courses, neighborhood houses, etc.).
· To multiply the conviviality places: parks, neighborhood parties, public benches.
· To provide premises for neighborhood initiatives, for after-school homework, shared
  games, co-working, fab-lab, e.g. in classrooms and playgrounds outside of scholar time.
· To study the feasibility of organizing car-free Sundays in some neighborhoods during the
  summer.
· To provide premises for the inhabitants in each neighborhoods for well-defined municipal
  projects and to give them the keys.
· To develop digital spaces in the neighborhood.

Ecolo-Groen Program 2018 – Watermael-Boitsfort (http://www.ecolo-wb.be/)

2.2 Social cohesion
· To improve coordination and support of the key actors (Prevention service and Maisons de
   quartier, SISP social workers, etc.).
· To decentralize the cultural centers’ activities to all inhabitants, for social cohesion, the
  well-being of everyone in the community, creativity, expression, reflection.
· To promote cohesion by supporting all forms of solidarity between residents (e.g. elders
  sponsoring new residents, ‘helping mums’ group to help young households, etc.).
· To promote citizen initiatives around composts, fruit and vegetable gardens, fruit-picking
  areas, collective and neighborhood henhouses (including training and logistical support and
  the provision of communal land).
· To make places accessible and fit for playing: toy boxes, playgrounds and nature, etc.
· To multiply the possibility of free access to sport: infrastructure development, free
  occupation of the 3 Tilleuls Stadium grounds outside the hours used by clubs, etc.
· To make a "program contract" to improve the monitoring of non-profit organizations
  (ASBL).
· To set up sports checks for the municipality children under specific conditions.
· To develop homework schools by involving people who can speak several languages and
  help them find premises.
· To support and network classes offered by EPN (digital public spaces) aiming the reduction
  of the digital gap between those who are comfortable with computers and those who do
  not have access to it, and to set up intergenerational training spaces.
· To establish cultural exchanges with other municipalities in Brussels.
· To study the possibility of allowing people to be buried respecting their beliefs and
  traditions.

2.2 An hospital and welcoming municipality
· To publish a booklet presenting the municipality in several languages for new residents.
· To organize language courses for children and adults.
· To support reading classes for adults
· To organize a structural action for political, economic and climatic refugees by involving the
  inhabitants: welcoming places, help possibilities information, etc.
· To suggest a bicycle tour of the municipality for the new inhabitants, on a voluntary basis
  and with the support of a cycling association, to visit the main services (schools,
  administrations, sports, shopping centers).

2.4 A municipality accessible to all
· To integrate the people with reduced mobility’s accessibility into all public spaces and
   communal buildings.
· When renovating sidewalks, to be sure to ensure their mobility and provide adequate
   sidewalk widths.

Ecolo-Groen Program 2018 – Watermael-Boitsfort (http://www.ecolo-wb.be/)

·   To fight the congestion of sidewalks (works, overflowing hedges, temporary parking
    prohibition signs, etc.).
·   To continue and expand the activities of the mobile center (Centrale des moins mobiles =
    CMM), a volunteer transportation service for people with reduced mobility and / or low
    incomes.
·   To create housing adapted to people with reduced mobility in particular in all new
    constructions, and to encourage to make a maximum of existing housing accessible.
·   To offer to the police and the municipal services (Urban planning, Public works) a training
    on the realities faced by people with reduced mobility.
·   To designate a person of reference to the municipal administration for people with
    reduced mobility.

Ecolo-Groen Program 2018 – Watermael-Boitsfort (http://www.ecolo-wb.be/)

3. A quality living environment
The municipality plays a vital role in the development and maintenance of our living
environment. Protecting the environment as a lifestyle and an irreplaceable resource is in the
ecologists’ DNA. Our green municipality is fortunate to have a rich and important natural
heritage and to be located on the edge of the Soignes Forest. We must continue to preserve,
to valorize and share it. Preserving biodiversity is also key.
The use and layout of the public space also contributes greatly to a living environment of
quality. We want it nice and friendly, to ensure a maximum of well-being for all! Our goal is to
ensure an harmonious and environmentally friendly land use, maintaining the quality of green
spaces and preserving the quality of life and the friendliness in the neighborhoods.
Finally, the Municipality has a vital role to play in terms of public hygiene, even if it is also
everyone's business. It must also act with determination to reduce environmental nuisances.

OUR PROPOSALS:
3.1 Green space and nature
· To ensure that for any tree cut in public spaces a new tree is replanted.
· To launch a new plantation plan in the public space by favoring flowering and fruit trees.
· To continue the green spaces’ management methods that are the most nature friendly:
  zero-pesticides, flowering fields favorable to bees and insects, late mowing, etc.
· To organize information and awareness campaigns on environmentally friendly garden
  maintenance techniques, especially to combat the use of pesticides.
· To develop (together with the involved associations) composts, fruit and vegetable
  gardens, neighborhood gardens, including logistical support and the provision of municipal
  land.
· To ensure the maintenance of flower spaces that embellish the town, favoring species that
  are favorable to biodiversity.

Ecolo-Groen Program 2018 – Watermael-Boitsfort (http://www.ecolo-wb.be/)

· To promote native species and species that are beneficial to biodiversity for municipal
  plantations and for urban permits.
· To strengthen the capacity of hosting biodiversity in the municipality (insect and bird
  nesting boxes, etc.) and encourage the work of associations that are active in this area.
· To develop awareness-raising actions to encourage citizens to take concrete measures of
  protection: adoption of a local emblematic species to be protected at a communal level,
  sponsorship of trees, seeds, hives, nest boxes, etc.
· To install information panels at the bottom of remarkable trees (natural patrimony).
· To map the landscape aspects of the municipality.
· To promote the consumption of tap water, at home but also in the municipal
  administration, public spaces or schools, including the installation of drinking fountains.
· To reintegrate the water cycle in the city and to add alternative solutions: green roofs,
  pavement, and reservoirs. To promote the good use of rainwater and surface water.
· To organize information campaigns on the inherent risks of feeding foxes and some species
  of birds in excess, in order to prevent their proliferation, as well as for the rats.

3.2 Public spaces
· To continue and intensify sidewalk renovations.
· To continue road improvements in order to make it secure for all users (crosswalks, signage,
  speed breakers, lighting, etc.).
· To improve the coordination of work (related to water, gas, electricity, and telephone) and
  communal worksites.
· To better inform inhabitants on the program and the follow-up of the work carried out by
  the municipality and the public utilities service (through public meetings, the website, the
  municipal journal and an “in situ” display).
· To finalize the renovation project of Place Keym in order to make its pavements safer and
  more user-friendly (by providing new benches and new plantings)
· To support public spaces occupation projects that promote conviviality in the
  neighborhoods (neighborhood tables, streets reserved for games, flea markets, etc.) by
  authorizing closures to traffic, if necessary.
· To maintain and develop municipal playgrounds and ensure that they host games that
  promotes the development of the child's abilities.
· To organize a consultation with Logis-Floréal and the Monuments and Sites Department for
  the creation of a new playground on Place Jules Messine.
· To offer sport modules in parks or playgrounds (fitness trails, training machines, traction
  bars, basketball baskets, etc.).
· To install quality street furniture in the public spaces (benches, garbage cans, bike poles,
  picnic tables, etc.).
· To promote the exhibition of art works and places for freedom of expression in public
  places.

Ecolo-Groen Program 2018 – Watermael-Boitsfort (http://www.ecolo-wb.be/)

· To remove commercial advertising in areas managed by the Municipality.

3.3 A secure municipality
· To organize a community police and enhance the role of neighborhood officers.
· To better publicize and develop the techno-prevention services offered by the local police
  (home visits during absences, bicycle engravings, etc.).
· To ensure that SIAMU fees are respected for all places open to the public.
· To effectively combat any form of congestion on sidewalks and pedestrian paths, with a
  particular eye on wild parking.
· To make all users aware of the rules of the road (e.g. danger of absence of night lights or
  behaviors that endanger pedestrians).
· To make sure that public lighting is renovated (including entrances to laneways, cul de sacs,
  pedestrian crossings, etc.) and to ensure that lampposts are not hidden behind trees and
  traffic signs.

3.4 Fight against environmental nuisances
· To use healthy products and materials (cleaning, maintenance of green spaces, paint,
   recycled paper, etc.) in all municipal services and buildings (sustainable purchasing).
· To limit the presence of transmitting antennas in residential neighborhoods.
· To focus on wired connections rather than wifi in communal buildings,especially in
  nurseries and schools.
· To improve the municipal vehicles’ environmental performance and the CPAS by
  purchasing vehicles with a good eco-score when they are replaced.
· To increase the number of bicycles available for the municipal staff for business trips.
· To continue the implementation of the "Plan Lumière", which aims to renew public lighting
  using installations that consume much less energy, while ensuring good visibility but
  limiting light pollution.
· To sensitize people about the nuisance of lights in gardens at night (and / or the benefits
  of darkness at night for nature and sleep).
· To continue opposing the overflying of Brussels: to continue the actions in Justice and, if
  necessary, to introduce new ones.
· To inform people of the risks and measures to take in case of pollution spikes.

3.5 Public cleanliness
· To reinforce the municipal service that is in charge of cleanliness.
· To establish, in consultation with the inhabitants, a mapping of the black spots in terms of
  public cleanliness to know where to focus on the monitoring and the work of the communal
  agents.
· To create a municipal graffiti cleaning service for private properties.
· To generalize, in certain neighborhoods, the use of rigid garbage cans for garbage bags in
  order to protect them from foxes and crows.

Ecolo-Groen Program 2018 – Watermael-Boitsfort (http://www.ecolo-wb.be/)

· To develop the network of public garbage cans, especially near shops, schools and sports
  facilities.
· To provide spaces for the garbage cans’ management for new construction or for the
  division of existing buildings.
· To place urban ashtrays (integrated into the landscape).
· To experiment with public dry toilets layout in green spaces and playgrounds.
· To promote underground bottle banks to avoid noise and ensure its accessibility for the
  elderly or for disabled people.
· To organize neighborhood cleaning days.
· To create "clean streets" awareness campaigns for children.
· To put in place prevention and accountability actions to deal with public disorder (street
  litter, cans, paper, cigarette buts, putting out the rubbish outside authorized hours).
· To continue the efforts made against dog excrement (fines, obligatory use of bags, etc.).
· In consultation with the Logis and Floréal, to ensure the passage of the agents of the
  hygiene service in the alleys.

3.6    Urbanism and Town Planning
· To promote the use of natural materials (green flat roofs, wooden frames, natural
   insulation, etc.).
· To facilitate the reconversion of office buildings into housing or nursing homes.
· To enable the division of large properties while ensuring respect for living standards and
  the maintenance of architectural features.
· To provide replanting measures for any tree cutting application.
· To limit the waterproofing of soils and to promote the good use of rainwater: to encourage
  the placement of retention and recovery tanks and the rehabilitation of existing cisterns.
· To evolve projects that were developed in the neighbor municipalities that are likely to
  have an impact on Watermael-Boitsfort (eg Delta, Solvay-sports, Hippodrome, Boondael-
  Ernotte) in order to make them socially and environmentally acceptable.
· To oppose the Regional Government’s project of urbanizing the Plateau de la Foresterie.
  To defend the inscription on the list of the real estate patrimony’s safeguard of the building
  "Royale Belge" (boulevard du Souverain 25) and to oppose to any inappropriate urbanistic
  project on this site.
· To preserve undeveloped house land to vegetable gardens, playgrounds, composts,
  orchards and defend the urban agriculture project of Chant des Cailles.
· To continue to develop a land use plan (PPAS) for the Archiducs zone.
· To ensure the maintenance of a quality welcome at the Urbanism-Environment service
  counter and, if possible, to extend opening hours; create an information point for urbanism
  / architecture / public surveys with models of the town that represent the main
  developments.

Ecolo-Groen Program 2018 – Watermael-Boitsfort (http://www.ecolo-wb.be/)

4. Mobility for all and everyone

The street sharing among all its users is our leitmotif. This includes the development of a safe
and walkable public space and active support for alternative ways of travel then the individual
car.
In addition to each ways of transport’s specific proposals, Ecolo-Groen wants the municipality
to conduct surveys on the population’s mobility needs in order to an adequate, coherent and
respectful mobility policy for each citizen.

OUR PROPOSALS:
4.1 Pedestrians
· To ensure the presence of pedestrian crossings and enhance their visibility.
· To ensure a consultation with the Region and the STIB to increase the visibility of pedestrian
  crossings where tram crossing locations are.
· To improve the maintenance, lighting and signage of the many pedestrian lalleys that allow
  shortcuts.
· When renovating sidewalks, to ensure the mobility of the people with reduced mobility
  and to provide an adequate sidewalk widths.
· To fight against the congestion of sidewalks (works, overflowing hedges, temporary signs
  prohibiting parking).
· To support school pick-ups by bike or by foot.

4.2 Bikes
· To allow secure parking on roads for bicycles, including the multiplication of "bike boxes"
  and the set-up of parking arches for bicycles.

Ecolo-Groen Program 2018 – Watermael-Boitsfort (http://www.ecolo-wb.be/)

· To develop marked cycle routes.
· To pay attention to the quality of the layouts (markings, quality of the coating, lighting,
  etc.).
· To create public repair place for small bike repairs in several areas of the municipality
  (pump and small tools).
· To continue the organization of "cyclist's card" trainings in primary school as well as adult
  trainings to allow everyone to feel comfortable cycling in the traffic.
· To distribute fluorescent vests at mobility events and to encourage their use.
· To develop the concept of "cycle streets" in which cycling is a priority.
· To make cycling a priority in the areas around schools.
· To solicitate, from the Region, the renovation of the regional cycle paths along the Avenue
  Delleur and the Chaussée de la Hulpe, as well as better security for the cyclists at the
  intersections of Boulevard du Souverain, in order to limit the risk of collision with cars that
  are performing gyration.

4.3 Public transportation
· To support the STIB bus plan to implement new bus lines, together with taking care of
  modifying the road so that the traffic can be shared between buses, cars, bikes and
  pedestrians.
· To support alternative ways of transport during evenings and nights (Noctis lines, Collecto
  shared taxis etc.).
· To carefully watch the RER work (Infrabel’s commitments, Boitsfort’s station’s surroundings,
  travelers welcoming).
·   To provide a detailed information to all about the different phases of the RER
    implementation.

4.4 Cars
· To continue the 30km zones in residential neighborhoods in order to moderate speed, to
  reduce pollution and noise, and to increase safety.
· To continue the development of the shared car fleet in the municipality (CAMBIO,
  Ubeequo, Zencar, Zipcar, DriveNow, etc.).
· To support initiatives that aim to share a single vehicle for several households (eg Cozycar)
  and to encourage carpooling.
· To organize mobility awareness campaigns to encourage the use of alternatives to
  individual cars (bicycles, public transport, travelling by foot etc.), including through
  accessibility sheets that would be distributed in the municipality (schools, administrative
  centers, sport centers, shopping centers, markets etc.).
· To encourage the use of alternative ways of transportation rather than the individual car
  to the municipality’s staff and the CPAS, going from work to home.
· To join the network of public recharging terminals for electric vehicles currently being
  developed at the regional level.
· To change the municipality parking plan, particularly to allow people that are domiciled at
  the border of a blue zone to park in neighboring areas.

Ecolo-Groen Program 2018 – Watermael-Boitsfort (http://www.ecolo-wb.be/)

· To develop short-term parking opportunities (30 minutes) near local businesses.
· To relay road safety awareness initiatives (BOB's, Go for zero, etc.).
· To advocate with the Region for a redevelopment of the Delleur / Solvay junction to
  improve security and to ensure better management of transit flows.
· To defend Watermael-Boitsfort’s interests concerning the regional project of demolishing
  the Herrmann-Debroux viaduct, paying particular attention to the measures taken to avoid
  the traffic’s postponement on the Avenue de la Foresterie and part of the traffic’s
  dispersion in the residential neighborhoods of the municipality.

         5. Watermael-Boitsfort in transition
Since the implementation of the "Agenda 21" initiative launched by Ecolo, our municipality
has taken or supported numerous sustainable development initiatives. Ecolo-Groen supports
a transition towards production and consumption ways that take into account the depletion
of natural resources and our lifestyles’ impact on air quality, climate, soil and biodiversity. A
transition that calls for profound changes in our consuming and producing ways, but also
working and living together ways.
Many initiatives are already aiming to reduce energy consumption (swimming pools and
municipal infrastructures, information and support for residents), giving access to as many
people as possible to local, organic and seasonal food (vegetable gardens, school canteens,
training courses). ), to allow the reuse or sharing of resources (donations, repair cafes, local
exchange services, citizen signs).

OUR PROPOSALS:
5.1 Promote the transition
· To view Watermael-Boitsfort as a municipality in transition.

Ecolo-Groen Program 2018 – Watermael-Boitsfort (http://www.ecolo-wb.be/)

· To identify, map and promote local initiatives promoting the transition and to include them
  in the welcome brochure for new residents.
· To create an analysis grid of communal decisions via the transition prism and to train
  communal employees to the concept of transition.
· To create scholarships and exchange places for those wishing to embark on a professional
  or citizen project promoting a transitional economy.
· To provide land and space for transition activities.
· To support bicycle transportation and delivery projects that replace motorized vehicles by
  offering incentives to local players.
· To make the transition a tool for professional integration.
· To enhance the commercial actors who have good practices in favor of the environment
  and transition.
· To give priority to the use of free software in the municipal administration.
· To study the possibility of funerary practices that have less impact on the environment.
· To encourage school and after school activities that allow the discovery of nature, food and
  sustainable consumption: active farm visits, cooking vegetables grown in the school
  grounds, "zero waste" workshops, etc.

5.2 Food
· To promote and support the development of solidarity buying groups for fruits and
  vegetables (GASAP).
· To encourage synergies between all contributors in the municipality’s sustainable food.
· To implement awareness-raising and educational actions around the sustainability and
  quality of food as well as activities promoting the learning of taste and diversity of food.
· To maintain access to quality food in school canteens and prioritize it during municipal
  events (short circuits and seasonal fruits and vegetables, priority to bio) and to provide for
  permanent access to drinking water.
· To include sustainable food in public markets by making it the norm: a maximum of local,
  seasonal, organic products in school canteens, nurseries, social restaurants, resting homes,
  municipal events and local celebrations.
· To develop public gardens and orchards and to identify places where others can be created.
· To stimulate food production through the planting of fruit trees, small fruit or herbs.
· To stimulate the installation of barns in school gardens, parks and public spaces and to
  encourage people to cultivate in their gardens or on their terraces.
· To organize and promote harvesting and public gathering.

5.3 Consume differently
· To devote part of the participatory budget to initiatives aiming to consume differently.
· In the extension of the Repair Café and the Donneries, to create a municipality
  "Ressourcerie" allowing the sharing, the repair, the reuse, the recycling and the valorization

Ecolo-Groen Program 2018 – Watermael-Boitsfort (http://www.ecolo-wb.be/)

of the resources, in collaboration with the inhabitants and by integrating a project of socio-
   professional insertion.
· To establish or support citizen initiatives allowing the sharing of resources, objects or
  knowledge.
· To organize trainings / workshops to encourage another consuming way: zero-waste,
  recovery, sharing, and transformation.
· To promote high quality local food and craft production and to promote their presence in
  shops and markets.
· To promote and favor the establishment of Local Exchange Services (SEL) and to encourage
  new trade methods and the creation of common goods.
· To integrate carbon footprint criteria into public supply contracts (paper, equipment,
  paints, etc.).
· To put a mobile press in Boitsfort to make apple juice and to support initiatives wo want to
  transform local food resources.

5.4 Waste management
· To apply a zero waste policy (meaning to limit the production of waste and packaging)
  within the administration, the CPAS, the municipal and paracommunal ASBLs, the schools
  as well as during the events they organize.
· To sensitize the population to the "zero waste" subject, to support local actors who
  implement initiatives that go in this same direction and to encourage residents to reduce
  packaging and to use reusable objects.
· To provide selective trash bins in public places and at large gatherings of people (concerts,
  public parties, markets) and to favor reusable, returnable or biodegradable materials.
· To encourage businesses and supermarkets to install bins for people to leave or obtain
  reusable bags.
· To give a communal bonuses to the use of washable diapers and to encourage nurseries
  and nursing homes to use them.
· To create mechanisms to promote local green waste (shredded / dead leaves from
  municipal services or individuals / businesses) in partnership with citizens' initiatives.
· To encourage composting by relying on the master composter network and to continue to
  develop collective composts.
· To promote the sorting of organic materials in each municipal or paracommunal
  infrastructures.

5.5 Energy
Saving energy is vital for the planet, but also for the wallet! This is as true for the municipality
as for the individuals. In addition, saving energy also actively contributes to the fight against
global warming by promoting our energy independence.

Ecolo-Groen Program 2018 – Watermael-Boitsfort (http://www.ecolo-wb.be/)

The municipality must therefore set an example. In the buildings that the municipality
manages, including the swimming pool, the action of Ecolo-Groen who succeeded to reduce
the energy consumption of nearly 40% since 2004! Our goal is to achieve 50% energy savings.
The municipality has adopted a motion by which it commits itself to the Convention of Mayors’
dynamics. It addresses energy issues more broadly than the Kyoto plan which is focused on
communal buildings. Following the vote on this motion, the majority led by Ecolo approved a
"Sustainable Energy Action Plan" which has two components: on one hand the actions in the
public sphere (energy savings in the Municipal Administration and ASBL paracommunales, in
the communal schools, the CPAS, etc.) and on the other hand the actions of awareness and
support of the inhabitants and various private actors. The proposals below are inspired by this
Sustainable Energy Action Plan.

OUR PROPOSALS:
· To welcome any innovative project in the energy field (citizen cooperatives for energy
  production, small biogas plant using composts, geothermal energy from sewers, etc.).
Sustainable management of the buildings’ energy belonging municipality and its entities:
· To continuously improve energy management in all municipalities and paracommunal
  infrastructures: schools, municipal associations, etc.
· To systematically monitor energy management in all municipal buildings (energy audit,
  energy register) and to prioritize interventions to be carried out according to budget
  possibilities and opportunities for subsidies.
· To designate an energy referent for each communal building tasked with fightint waste,
  detecting anomalies, regularly recording water and energy consumption and raising users'
  awareness, etc.
· To set targets to be achieved in each municipal area of energy use when it can be
  quantified.
· To count the carbon footprint of the municipality and to work to reduce it.
· To participate in joint energy supply contracts with other public structures and to require
  the supply of 100% green electricity.
· To establish an energy inventory of communal housing, to identify housing at risk of fuel
  poverty and to continue the housing energy renovation.
· To minimize the energy impact of buildings in terms of materials and equipment as well as
  consumption.
· To ensure a monitoring of all renewable energies for buildings and communal sites and to
  privilege their use whenever it is technically possible and relevant, possibly by calling on
  citizen cooperatives for energy production.
Inform inhabitants and actors:
· To conduct information, sensitization, experience-sharing and support actions for
  residents, associations and companies in the municipality that contribute to saving energy,
  to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and to the use of renewable energies (energy
  meetings, energy monitoring of Cités-jardins, large buildings, experience sharing between
  actors, information relay on group purchases, etc.).

Ecolo-Groen Program 2018 – Watermael-Boitsfort (http://www.ecolo-wb.be/)

· To inform the population of the private installations possibilities for the production of
  renewable energy, particularly through cooperative social energy companies.
· To improve assistance to citizens in fuel poverty by redirecting them to the CPAS.
· To publicize any initiative in order to obtain public support to increase the energy
  performance of buildings or to offer residents energy support: energy audit, services
  offered by "Homegrade" (formerly "House of Energy and Eco-construction ").
· To contribute to information of the public and the professionals of the construction’s sector
  about energy savings and to encourage the inhabitants to take advantage of all works to
  increase the energetic performance of their homes and to turn towards the alternative
  energies.
· To continue the energy monitoring of the Cités-jardins in partnership with Le Logis Floréal,
  the energy unit of the CPAS and the responsible entity for Cité-Jardins.
· To pay attention to the impacts of smart meters, especially regarding the protection of
  privacy.
· To raise awareness on the environmental impact of open fires and to encourage sweeping.

Ecolo-Groen Program 2018 – Watermael-Boitsfort (http://www.ecolo-wb.be/)

6. A voluntarist and supportive housing planning
Watermael-Boitsfort is a green municipality and is where life is good for all. However, it is
becoming increasingly difficult to live there because rents are expensive and housing often
poorly adapted to today’s living conditions. In addition, 44,000 households in Brussels are on
waiting lists for social housing and the waiting time is estimated at 10 years for new applicants.
The demand for housing is therefore growing constantly in Brussels.
Our municipality has a social housing stock that represents 18.5% of the housing in the town.
But the price of real estate is unfortunately an issue for a growing proportion of young
households, families with modest and average incomes, and also the less young who see their
income decline (pension, life tests). For Ecolo-Groen, the municipality has a key role to play in
the provision of affordable public housing of high environmental quality. There is a growing
demand in this area. However, it can only be done at a similar pace and by respecting a balance
between the necessary creation of new housing, the preservation of the green character
which is the charm of our community, and the improvement of infrastructure and community
facilities.
To promote social cohesion and solidarity, Ecolo-Groen also wants to initiate mixed housing
projects, places to "live together" mixing different audiences, and to promote forms of group
housings and intergenerational housings.

OUR PROPOSALS:
6.1 Housing for all
· To strengthen the “Régie Foncière” ’s resources to support housing construction projects,
  to have the capacity to optimally manage a greater number of housing and to support an
  affordable rent policy.
· In the communal housing stock, to save 20% of supported / supervised housing for
  vulnerable public groups.
· To study the possibility of installing tiny housing for the disadvantaged (homeless /
  paperless).

Ecolo-Groen Program 2018 – Watermael-Boitsfort (http://www.ecolo-wb.be/)

· Create housing adapted for people with reduced mobility and adaptable for all new
  constructions and to support the work necessary to make a maximum of existing housings
  accessible.

6.2 Better use of the existing buildings
· To continue renovating the existing building of the Régie Foncière.
· To facilitate the reallocation of office buildings into housing, clustered housing and
  amenities that enhance social cohesion.
· To allow co-location in a flat (apartment, undivided single-family house) and to promote it
  with regard to the jurisdiction of other levels of government, for example in social housing.
· To enable the division of large dwellings while ensuring the respect of habitability standards
  and the maintenance of architectural features.
· To federate and support residents to provide effective and adapted solutions for each
  home that reduces energy bills.
· To promote the implementation of the regional rent allowance and other possible public
  help.
· To continue the policy of fighting unoccupied housing, in collaboration with the Region.
· To study the possibility of public management of vacant properties (housing or offices) by
  collaborating with an existing Social Housing Agency (AIS) or by creating a new structure.
· To organize regular meetings around the issue of housing among all the actors active in
  municipality’s territory, for a more effective collaboration: the municipality, the CPAS, the
  social housing companies, the Advisory Councils of the tenants of housing (Cocolo), the AIS
  Delta.

6.3 A housing plan designed over the long term
· To continue a coherent housing policy with a long-term vision on the Archiducs Square: 1)
  Ensure the completion of the Archiducs Sud project (59 housing units + 1 communal nursery
  with 42 beds + 1 medical home); 2) Implement the first phase of the Archiducs Nord-
  Gerfaut construction project (40 medium-sized dwellings including an intergenerational
  housing of 9 dwellings, a community housing for the light handicapped of 16 dwellings, as
  well as 15 conventional dwellings); 3) Study the possibility of housing’s complementary
  development in the Archiducs district as part of the development of a Specific Land Use
  Plan (PPAS), in consultation with residents, future occupants and the Logis Floreal.
· To study the possibility of building medium-sized housing in the Boitsfort station car park,
  keeping the car park under buildings and strengthening the site's biodiversity (gardens,
  trees in the periphery, green roofs and facades, etc.).
· To provide the presence of businesses and services where there are already concentrations
  of housing and during the construction of new housing (eg Archiducts).
· To lead a new medium-sized housing project such as Loutrier Street.
· To finalize the project of reallocating the Saint-Hubert church into housing.

Ecolo-Groen Program 2018 – Watermael-Boitsfort (http://www.ecolo-wb.be/)

7. Circular economy and proximity communication
Under the impulse of the ecologists, the municipality carried out a series of actions aiming to
consume differently and to give a second life to the objects (Donneries, Repair Café, etc.).
Ecolo-Groen wants to actively support local actors, companies and associations, especially
those who transform or produce goods and services that are local and sustainable. Ecolo-
Groen also wants to support local shops that meet the needs of residents and gives life to our
neighborhoods.
The goal of the following proposals is to promote a circular economy, and an economy of
proximity, that is sustainable, creating jobs and employability.

OUR PROPOSALS:
7.1 Valuing actors
· To create a directory of traders, artisans and economic actors from Watermael-Boitsfort.
· To open an internet space for economic and social actors (companies and self-employed,
  associations, traders, craftsmen, etc.) to present and to spread job offers on the municipal
  territory.
· To map local initiatives for people to consume local.
· To promote local food and craft productions and to promote their presence in local
  businesses and markets.
· To promote local repairers and processors.
· To set up signage to inform local businesses.

7.2 Creating favorable conditions
· To support initiatives aiming to improve the quality of commercial spaces and their
  surroundings (architecture, cleanliness, lighting, etc.)

Ecolo-Groen Program 2018 – Watermael-Boitsfort (http://www.ecolo-wb.be/)

· To promote the maintenance or the installation of local shops in the different
  neighborhoods.
· To encourage the reconversion of empty office buildings for small businesses or shared
  workspaces.
· To develop and promote coworking spaces.
· To create 30 min parking spaces near the shops.
· To promote the maintenance and development of activities in old workshops or garages.
· To promote social economy enterprises in the specifications of the municipality.
· To promote the development of employer groups in order to pool their employees.
· To establish incentives for those who wish to upgrade used textiles or furniture in the
  municipality’s territory.
· To collaborate with traders (including those in the market) by offering alternatives to
  packaging (zero waste).
· To make merchants and entrepreneurs aware of sustainable financial products.
· To make the Horeca sector aware of sustainable food and to promote the initiatives taken
  by these actors.
· To create scholarships and exchanges for those wishing to embark on a professional project
  promoting a circular economy.
· To inform economic actors on the notion of sustainable public markets.

7.3 Innovate
· To create a communal "Ressourcerie", within the framework of a socio-professional
  integration project, where activities will be developed allowing the reuse, recycling and
  valorization of local resources.
· To set up a management system for organic waste specific to communities (schools,
  nursing homes) and businesses, particularly in the Horeca sector.
· To accentuate social and professional integration efforts, notably through “article 60”, by
  working on partnerships with public and associative sectors and in particular those active
  in the field of circular economy and resource development.
· To evaluate the feasibility of a bicycle delivery system coupled with a drop-off point on the
  municipal territory and the possibility of creating quality employment.
· To create a market at Logis Floréal.
· To create a meeting place between the economic actors of the municipality and to
  maximize the potential synergies between SMEs, independents (/freelancers), traders and
  associative actors of the municipality.
· To develop tools to facilitate the savings’ investments in production or consumption
  projects, favoring a circular or local economy.

Ecolo-Groen Program 2018 – Watermael-Boitsfort (http://www.ecolo-wb.be/)

8. Preparing the citizens of tomorrow
Our children are coming in a changing world! The municipality is the first place where our
young people build and develop themselves. It therefore has a very important role to play in
ensuring their physical, relational and intellectual fulfillment, all this in harmony with nature
and their environment. To achieve this, the municipality must provide parents with
appropriate childcare and must offer children sports, cultural and civic activities, both in
school and extracurricular. Ecolo-Groen has a whole series of proposals for early childhood,
childhood, youth and education.
The school is the first place to invest in to meet new challenges. We want a caring and
stimulating school, which gives the children the desire to learn, pays attention to equal
opportunities, is open to the world and mobilized on important societal issues. A school that
promotes a better use of the resources of our planet, which gives young people the means to
develop their autonomy, and, in particular, which prepares them to a reasonable use of new
technologies.

OUR PROPOSALS:
8.1 Early childhood
· To create a centralized registration for communal daycare (crèches).
· To finalize the new “crèche communale” constructions at the Archiducs.
· To create new co-hospitality spaces, and to encourage the development of day-care
  centers, and an "open house" space (place for young parents and baby).
· To promote activities for toddlers, developed by the Vénerie and Libraries
· To support associations like Ligue des familles and Planing Familial that organizes activities
  for families: clothing grants, parent meetings, etc.
· To annually organize an early childhood day to promote all activities developed by the
  municipality, the ONE and associations.

Ecolo-Groen Program 2018 – Watermael-Boitsfort (http://www.ecolo-wb.be/)

· To organize a consultation with Logis-Floréal and the direction of the Monuments and Sites
  for the creation of a new playground adapted to the smallest on the Place Jules Messine.

8.2 Childhood
· To listen to children, through the advice of existing children and young people, or to put in
  place recreational areas, especially during the installation or renovation.
· To create new homework schools, especially in partnership with libraries, neighborhood
  homes or the Maison des jeunes.
· To organize activities in other languages in order for the children to learn languages
  differently (art, sport).
· To promote children's access to activities around the vegetable garden and nature
  (composting, poultry houses, etc.).
· To strengthen extracurricular activities that promotes the development of children's
  creativity (eg DIY, theater, painting, etc.).
· To offer support for sports / creative internships during school holidays by making
  communal infrastructures available.
· To organize transfers between schools and academies.

8.3 Education
To create favorable conditions for an inclusive and quality education
· To adapt teaching to the challenges of a changing population with new needs, especially
  for the learning of the language of the education.
· To encourage teamwork between teachers in schools, as well as with children, especially
  during the implementation of the Pilot Plans.
· To better manage relations between schools and parents by developing projects such as
  "café papote", "school committee", etc.
· To suggest a training involving the entire educational community, including parents, to
  strengthen the children's social and emotional skills and, more generally, to improve the
  "living together" in schools and the municipality.
· To create a solidarity fund allowing access to school activities and extra-curricular activities
  for all.
· To finalize the health plan in schools (toilet renovations, water fountains, etc.).
· To encourage a Dutch immersion project in a municipal school, similar to the immersion
  project that already exists at the Royal Athenaeum in Watermael-Boitsfort "La Brise".
· To intensify sport activities in schools, such as the "football" project in Karrenberg.
· To organize swimming pool time more optimally.
· To improve the mobility of children on the way to their schools: support for children that
  are by bicycle and by foot, school buses, etc. and to secure paths to schools at peak times
  (bike lanes).

Ecolo-Groen Program 2018 – Watermael-Boitsfort (http://www.ecolo-wb.be/)

· To continue the investment in continuing education for teachers and educational
  assistants, with particular emphasis on conflict management and non-violent
  communication (between children, between adults and between schools and parents), the
  fight against bullying, the cooperative approach, creativity, etc.
· To perpetuate the educational coordinator function, particularly to support the principals.
· To study the possibility of creating a janitorial station in schools where it does not exist yet,
  in particular to facilitate the use of school premises outside of school time.
· To continue activities around vegetable gardens, composting, and small hen farms,
  whether it is in or out of the school.
· To encourage school projects that aim to improve energy management.
A school that listens to children
· To increase the awareness of the children and the democratic practices at school (eg school
  councils, children's councils, etc.).
· To identify a pilot school to carry out an active pedagogy project in order to enable each
  student to be an actor in his learning, to build his knowledge, to develop his creativity, his
  cooperation and his benevolence.
A school open to the world
· To develop and promote successful cultural projects in schools with libraries, the Vénerie
  and the music and fine arts academies, possibly with other cultural actors.
· To stimulate the opening of the school through cultural and intercultural projects,
  intergenerational relationships, and neighborhood interactions.
· To extend the music-school project to all schools, in order to offer an hour of music to all
  the communal schools children (currently at Naïades and Karrenberg)
· To promote intercultural exchanges within the Brussels Region, particularly through
  partnerships between schools: cultural projects, verbal debates, common trips, etc.
· To develop synergies between children and seniors, for example through activities in
  schools and nursing homes.
· To encourage synergies between primary and secondary schools.
· To encourage school (and extracurricular) activities that allow discovery and contact with
  nature.
· To maintain the “classes vertes” for all 3rd kindergarten.
A school focused on the important issues of our society
· To continue the program that encourages healthy and sustainable eating in communal
  schools (by promoting water bottles, access to water, healthy and “zero-waste” snacks, fair
  products, seasonal and local products, banning sweet drinks, etc.)
· To make the teachers and the educational community aware of the themes of sustainable
  consumption and the transition, through trainings.
· To develop projects that allow both the recognition of the multiple cultures present as well
  as the construction of an interculturality in connection with our civic values.

Ecolo-Groen Program 2018 – Watermael-Boitsfort (http://www.ecolo-wb.be/)

· To encourage children to express themselves, especially through journalistic practices at
  school (not only at the pedagogical practices level, but also in the school life management:
  violence management, project management, management of the society problems, etc.)
· To continue teaching digital tools in communal schools while developing a critical spirit on
  their uses (costs, environmental nuisances and societal risks) and by raising awareness on
  the need for everyone to protect their digital identity
· To give priority to the use of free software in communal schools.

8.4 Youth
· To support young people’s initiatives by lending equipment and / or premises
· To list the "by and for young people" activities to highlight them.
· To continue the annual "Place aux enfants" organization (aiming the 6-12 year olds) and to
  sign up in the "Place aux jeunes" project (currently under development, targeting 12-15
  year olds).
· To rethink the layout of the skate park.
· To develop the Youth House (Maison de jeunes) activities and to renovate its premises.
· To develop the links between the generations through common activities with
  neighborhood houses, the Youth House, the residence for seniors, libraries, cultural
  centers, schools, etc.
· To continue the organization of activities between young people from different
  municipalities in Brussels, in order to allow the different publics to meet, and the discovery
  of other municipalities.
· To develop support for Scout units (subsidies, transport of camp materials, etc.).
· To finalize the Georges Benoidt sports agora project and to ensure the maintenance of
  public sport facilities that are accessible to all.
· To strengthen the voice of young people by organizing consultations on all projects that
  directly concern them (examples: layout of the skate park and sport areas, management of
  the Youth Center, support for youth movements).

Ecolo-Groen Program 2018 – Watermael-Boitsfort (http://www.ecolo-wb.be/)